RE: Bond, McCaskill votes on budget.

With some of the comments swimming around the media over the last few days over the recently passed budget, I would like to air a couple concerns of mine.

First, I believe that Bond could have made a larger impact by voting against the budget as proposed.

The budget as released by the Obama administration was a full eight percent increase over last year’s pork packed spending allotment. This, combined with nine thousand earmarks, is simply irresponsible.

Let me be clear, Bond did nothing unethical and was certainly within his rights to do so.

I can argue that the money received from earmarks here in southwest Missouri and across the state are going to appropriate places. However, because of eight Republican senators, including Bond, the political opportunity to regain the mantle of fiscal conservatism passed with a whimper.

Whats worse, moreover, is the claim by Missouri junior Senator Claire McCaskill that she is some sort of fiscal conservative because she voted against the measure.

Mind you her complaint was not the eight percent increase in federal spending, nor was it TARP 1 or the stimulus bill (aka porkulus) which she voted for. The supposed problem? Earmarks.

In other words, its a okay to spend in excess of two trillion dollars over the past four months but not okay to attach a few thousand earmarks worth a couple billion. Does this seem silly to anyone else?